The Doctor and His Wife
by I'm the reason the rum is gone
Summary: The Doctor has many wives, but when he tells River about them. He starts thinking on the subject. One-Shot Doctor/TARDIS, Doctor/River, Doctor/Rose


**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything from Doctor Who and this takes place immediately after Series 6. Spoilers for everything up to and including "The Wedding of River Song"

The Doctor stared at the console, deep in thought. He wondered what River would think about the Time War; no doubt she had read about it in her studies of him. He stroked the console and the TARDIS seemed to purr at his touch. His TARDIS, Her Doctor. He smiled.

River walked in carrying a towel and smiling. "Hello, sweetie." She immediately noticed he seemed more pensive than usual. "Is there something wrong?"

He looked up, noticing she was there for the first time. "No, I was just thinking about things."

"What kinds of things?" She said, taking his arm and leading him out of the control room.

_Doctor, do you have a room?_ Rory had asked that once and the Doctor chuckled softly. Of course he had a room, they were always in it. The control room was his room.

"What's so funny, dear?" River quizzed as they moved into the hall.

"Your father asked me if I had a room once."

"Why is that funny?" She asked, failing to see the joke.

"Because, River, I am always in my room. I don't particularly like having my own bed." He looked at her. "You understand that, don't you?"

"Of course, but I was wondering. What made Dad ask that in the first place?"

She led him to the next door and it was a tennis court. The rackets were along the wall and there was a bucket full of balls. River picked on up and threw it against the wall.

"That's not what's really on your mind though." She said.

"No, no it's not." The Doctor looked at her and took her arm softly, leading her away from the tennis court. The ball rolled, forgotten, to the door.

He led her to the one place he knew he could think. When they arrived, River expressed surprise. He smiled and knew that she would never understand it. They were in the Wardrobe Room.

"What are we doing in here?" River asked, looking around.

"It's a lot different than the last time I was in here." He said, looking around. Now, it looked like a fashion runway with all the clothes around as if they were the audience and a long full-length mirror on the end of the catwalk.

"When was that, sweetie?"

He took a deep breath. "Right after the Last Great Time War." He looked at her to gage her reaction. "River? Do you know anything about the Time War?"

"Not as much as you do I suppose." She looked into his eyes. "What happened? Tell me."

"I destroyed my race. I destroyed my home. I thought I had destroyed the Daleks, but that turned out to be untrue." He turned away from her. "I just wish I could take it back."

River sighed. "You want to be forgiven."

"Don't we all?" He walked away, but she followed him. "The one thing I wish I could do over again? I wish that I could have stopped the war in the first place, but it was inevitable."

River rubbed his back thoughtfully. "So what exactly did you do, if you didn't stop it? I mean, I know that creation was at stake and you said before that it was a war of time and space, but you never went into much detail after that."

"Rassilon was a hero to many of us, but he wanted to become a consciousness with the other Time Lords. On the last day of the war, I time-locked them and I destroyed all the participants except for a few. I wanted to go back, but how could I? Knowing that my people supported such a madman? I couldn't. The Time War caught up with me when the Master was resurrected, but he stopped Rassilon after realizing that the High Council had manipulated him as a child." He took a breath. "I think that's one of the only times I had actually been scared for the entire whole of creation. When the Master took them all into the time lock, I realized I would never see him again." He looked at her.

"What about your family? Brothers, sisters?" River asked quietly.

"They were all locked. I'll never see them again, River." He hugged her. "I hope that they were at least happy in the end."

"I hope so too, sweetie." She grew quiet. "Do you want me to forgive you?"

"It isn't your place to forgive me, River." He looked at her. "I did what I had to so I could save the universe, just like I always do."

"You don't want to though. Not anymore." She knew it was the end of her time with him and she was going back to prison.

"What I want doesn't matter. I have to make sure that I make the universe safe for all creation and that is a never-ending job." They began to walk back to the control room. "River, I want you to know that I thank you for trusting me even though you didn't know me very well. I thank you for taking the fall for my death in Utah and I thank you for being a good woman to a horrible man."

"You aren't a horrible man, sweetie." River responded, knowing she wouldn't see him for a long time yet. "You will always be important to me."

"I'm important to everyone, River." The Doctor sighed as he opened the door to the control room. "It's time to take you back home, dear."

"Alright then, I suppose I should just do what I always do and kiss you." She kissed him full on the lips, wondering if he would return it this time as he had just been through a lot.

The Doctor returned it and was happy that River Song understood him when no one else did. That was important. The TARDIS was their home and it had been the Doctor's for more than 700 years.

River went to her cell content that she would see her husband again. The Doctor went back into the TARDIS and touched the console. She seemed to be content as the Doctor began to speak once more telepathically to her.

I miss Rose Tyler… After all, what's a Doctor without his wife?


End file.
